Wireless networks are telecommunication networks that use radio waves to carry information from one node in the network to one or more receiving nodes in the network. Cellular telephony is characterized by the use of radio cells that provide radio coverage for a geographic area, with multiple cells arranged to provide contiguous radio coverage over a larger area. Wired communication can also be used in portions of a wireless network, such as between cells or access points.
Wireless communication technologies are used in connection with many user equipment, including, for example, satellite communications systems, portable digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and mobile devices (e.g., cellular telephones). One benefit that users of such devices can obtain is the ability to connect to a network (e.g., the Internet) as long as the user is within range of such a wireless communication technology. Current wireless communication systems use either, or a combination of, circuit switching and packet switching in order to provide mobile data services to mobile devices. Generally speaking, with circuit-based approaches, wireless data is carried by a dedicated (and uninterrupted) connection between the sender and recipient of data using a physical switching path. Packet-based approaches, on the other hand, do not permanently assign transmission resources to a given session, and do not require the set-up and tear-down of physical connections between a sender and receiver of data. In general, a data flow in packet-based approaches is divided into separate segments of information or packets. The data flow may include a number of packets or a single packet.
Small cell access point devices are radio access point devices that are deployed at subscriber sites in order to improve coverage of mobile wireless communication service (e.g., cell phone, wireless messaging, etc.) and thereby offload the burden on the infrastructure of the mobile service provider. These cells may be known as femtocells or picocells (typically, picocells are more powerful and support more channels than femtocell access point devices). These devices function, essentially, as cellular (or “cell”) transceiver towers. Like cell towers, they operate in a licensed spectrum that is subject to strict regulatory constraints on service providers.
Increasingly, small cells are being deployed by enterprises, such as large corporations that want to extend mobile communication capabilities inside their own buildings and other facilities where conventional cellular tower service (also referred to herein as “macro” service) might not be available. Small cells can allow open access in that both enterprise users and non-enterprise users can access the infrastructure. However, presently, these small cells only provide service to users belonging to a particular service provider's network.